How do I structure an English Literature essay????

Just keep to the structure of
1. Opinion
2. Evidence
3. comment on effects and techniques
4. focus on individual words from the quotation
5. discuss alternative interpretations
6. evidence to support #5
7. link to whole text/context/author
8. link to question.

If you keep writing each paragraph like that then there's no doubt you'll get A/A*

Point

Example (Quote or key moment)

Expand on this by explaining a keyword

Alternative interpretation

Which interpretation you agree with

The explanation is similar to or different to when..

The writer's message

Effect on reader

This works for both OMAM and AIC.

we were shown a structure guide but, sadly, i don't remember it... (good luck to my results)

we were advised to use quotes etc that are able to link to context and be heavily elaborated on. i followed the basic PEE, but integrated context and critic links within it... PECCE?

*edit: i noticed this is in GCSEs, not A-level... apologies? however an examiner will b blown away if you linked to critics lmao

anyway, i don't think structure is as much as a problem than the content that goes in it. i don't suggest writing a chaotic paragraph of points, just keep to a basic structure and try to vary sentences and use key terms

though, this is advice from a B/A student... i'm probably better hanging around for other people's input

what do you mean by "the explanation is similar or different to when"? Is this linking it to the rest of the novel?

The key point to writing great essays is to structure them really well. Try this step by step approach to paragraph and essay planning which has really helped me in the past.

First of all, look at the question. Look at the command word, and pick out any key words. use a highlighter if it helps you. For example, if the question is "Explore how the relationship between George and Lennie is presented in Ch1 of Of Mice and men", the command word is "explore" and the key words are "relationship" and "presented".

Then, broadly, you want to plan your essay with regards to the question. In 1-2 minutes you can do a quick, rough mindmap and write down all the key points that answer the question. Pick the ones you want to use (probably 3-5 points depending on essay length) and write them in an order that makes sense.

Write your introduction as a brief summary of all of your points, making sure to name the title of the text and the author. As a general rule, you should always try to give a brief answer to the question in your first few lines so that the examiner knows where you're going with your essay.

Then you get on to your points. I use a slightly expanded version of the PEER system.Obviously the above structure isn't definitive. You can change it around. Add/take away things. swap language for structure/form. But I think it's a great framework to get you on the path to better, more confident essay writing. It definitely helped me a lot when i was struggling.

The last part of your essay is your conclusion. This should be strong and you should reach a final answer. This is the part of the essay where you could bring out any slightly more obscure or interesting ideas to impress the examiner that fit with your essay but didn't make it into the main body.

I hope some of that helped-if you've got any questions just dm me.
Good luck essay writing!

Thank you so much, this has been really useful. It's nice to have someone just lay it out like this so I'm very grateful

How would i go about linking to critics??